Thursday 8 July 2010

Shutting Climategate?

The third (and hopefully the last) report on the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit has now been published (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/07/climategate-review-clears-scientists-dishonesty) and basically concludes that the emailing scientists did not cheat or manipulate their data but were rather cavalier in their language and responses to Freedom of Information requests. It is pretty evident that some of the CRU's critics will never be satisfied (there were reportedly some pretty virulent death threats) but it shouldn't be forgotten that scientists are only human. They can be partisan and do get irritated by what they perceive as unwarranted or ignorant interference (especially if it adds to their workload). The basic message seems to be that, in the present electronic universe, scientists (I hope you are reading this p.brain) have to be much more careful in what they say in emails, blogs, Facebook etc, especially if they choose to operate in a contentious field.

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Some of My Favourite Pictures of Lepidopteran Larvae

Caterpillars of moths and butterflies from the UK and India